Short test of self sufficiency: Power Outage

Yesterday the electric went out.  It was cool out, enough that heat is nice to have, but no real danger of pipes freezing.  No wind, storm or anything I was aware of that it could be blamed on.  The laptop never even twitched, though I was bummed to be without my constant companion music.  Easily I made an assessment of what supplies I had, how long before I would have to move my refrigerated and frozen goods to other storage, water saving measures I would apply and how I would get my music back on.


First, I put a fresh cylinder of propane on the camp heater and got it going to maintain the warmth in my area.  Next I opened the closet where my encampment was stored.  The miscellaneous locker was the top of the stack, and I took out the camp battery and the 100W inverter.    That got the music going and kept up the charge in the laptop.  A quick search told me the power outage was not on any maps, so it had not been called in yet.  This informed me that the outage must be extremely local, and town should have power, and thus any store I would go to for water or ice.  I had a sink of dishes that needed to be washed, and my reserve of drinking water was insufficient.  My reserve of propane was enough for cooking and heating water, but the camp heater is a fiend when it comes to fuel consumption.  A check of the weather revealed that it was supposed to stay around 40F all day and drop to the mid-20's during the night so ice would not be needed.


Shutting down the laptop to conserve power, and unhooking the camp battery, I took the battery, a multimeter and the charge cable for the powerstation up to Blur and hooked up the battery to charge during the town run.  Voltage checks confirmed it was charging from Blur.  Quick run up to Maul Mart where I grabbed eight gallons of water (enough to fill one empty storage shelf), and two tanks of propane (filled out the row on the shelf where I kept my reserve propane).


Getting home, as I was beginning to set up camp protocol for dish washing, the power came back on.  I was disappointed.  However I still discovered you can get two flushes with one five gallon bucket of used wash water.